Bresnahan thinks defense can be special

Defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan mixed in more blitzes and less man-to-man coverage last week than Raiders fans have seen in a while. It all starts up front, and he thinks the fact that he can rotate eight “fresh” defensive linemen in could lead to a big year.

“You see what happens toward the end of the game, you wear them down,” he said. “In the second half (against Denver) we wore them down, in my opinion, on the offensive line. And that helped kind of dictate the tempo of the game, it helped us get to Orton the entire game. Now if we clean up some of our coverage aspects we have something special that we can build on as long as we build on the foundation.”

Bresnahan said that defensive line coach Mike Waufle remarked to him after the game how unselfish the linemen were.

“Our guys just continued to go,” Bresnahan said. “It was an unselfish approach to it. They all got plenty of reps and they were fresh at the end of the game when it counted. To me it’s a great veteran group with veteran leadership with some young guys that they can mold as they go on and they’ve done an outstanding job.”

Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick threw 4 TDs in the opener against KC, and Bresnahan knows him from their days together with the Bengals.

“The kid’s a hell of a competitor,” he said. “A mobile quarterback, more than you would think, and he’s going to keep plays alive. He’s a guy that’s going to manage the game. He’s a smart guy, he’s going to manage the game well and try not to lose the game. We’ve got our work cut out. Looking forward to it, though.”